Jean Watson Theory

Nursing should not be looked upon or practiced as a mere physical approach to healing. Nursing should encompass the aspect of restoring each individual patient to his/her maximum physical and emotional state of being. In order to achieve such a goal, a patient must be able to bond with her caregiver on a personal level (Blais & Hayes, 2011). Jean Watson’s caritas factors sets an environment where the patient can obtain optimum health benefits (Blais & Hayes, 2011). The goal of this paper is to state my philosophy of nursing, the important dynamics and values that led me to adopting this philosophy, and the reason why I choose nursing as a profession. I will further explain how Jean Watson’s principles of philosophy is

Watson defines nursing as a human science consisting of knowledge, thought, value, philosophy, commitment and action with passion in human care transaction (Meleis, p172, 2012).

She later described the human as an energy field with illness and health being manifestations of the human pattern. Her continued study outlined relationships her theory has based off of her propositions. One of the relationships is the transpersonal caring field, which stays within the unitary field of consciousness. It signifies the unitary spiritual connection between the nurse and the patient. A transpersonal caring relationship goes beyond the ego levels of the patient and the nurse. It creates new possibilities for interaction. The practitioner’s consciousness about the carative factors and intentions opened up connections in the unitary field. This enables more access to the patient’s inner healing. The provider communicates the transpersonal relationship through different ways such as being present in the relationship. Caring-healing modalities are often noninvasive, natural-human energetic field modalities. Transpersonal caring promotes self-patterns and possibilities. Advanced transpersonal caring modalities recognize wholeness, healing, comfort, balance, harmony and well-being (McEwen & Wills, 2014, pg.

The Theory of Human caring is a middle range theory developed by Jean Watson with the focus on the relation between use of the clinical caritas processes and the building of a transpersonal caring relationship within the context of caring occasion and caring consciousness. The Theory of Human Caring honors the unity of the whole human being, while focusing on creating a healing environment (Watson, 2006). Watson had preference for human science, and clearly shunned the mechanistic and reductionist word view (Watson, 1985, as cited in Fawcett & DeSanto-Madeya, 2017). According to Watson, person is “an experiencing and perceiving spiritual being” (Watson, 1999, as cited in

Jean Watson’s Theory of Human Caring. The theory can be described as an expanded view of

Cara, C. (2003). A Pragmatic View of Jean Watson’s Caring Theory. Retrieved February 22, 2015, www.humancaring.org

According to Fawcett and DeSanto-Madeya (2013), Watson’s Theory of Human Caring can be categorized as a middle- range theory due to its focus on the relation between use of the clinical caritas processes and the building of a transpersonal caring relationship within the context of caring occasion and caring consciousness. Theory of Human Caring honors the unity of the whole human being, while also attending to creating a healing environment (Watson, 2006). Caring is acknowledged as transpersonal, in that it goes beyond the ego-oriented human; it involves the one caring as well as the care receiver, and is mutual, intersubjective, and reciprocal (Watson, 2006). The integrity and usefulness of the theory will be evaluated based on Fawcett’s (2005) criteria. Why it can be argued that the Theory of Human Caring meet the Fawcett’s evaluation criteria, there is evidence of confusion and lack of simplicity.

The caring theory was grounded on a humanitarian perspective and is found on a humanistic approach toward human caring programs and experiences. It acknowledges that life with individuals and their community to the surrounding environment are somehow connect and affects wellbeing of everything involved. The nature of the theory caring implies that it embraces reflective investigations as well subjective and interpretative inquiries. The nursing profession uses nursing theories as the framework and foundation for practice.   Many people find nursing theories to be meaningless and of no use to the

The purpose of this paper is to analyze and summarize the philosophy of nursing and how nursing theory guides this nurse’s practice. Information used to do this paper was retrieved from the online database, Nursing and Allied Health Source and CINAHL through the SJR State Library. Our textbook, The Conceptual Foundations and the Merriam- Webster Dictionary website was also used. Some of the search phrases used were Jean Watson theory of human caring, philosophy of nursing, and Watson’s philosophy and theory of human caring in nursing on the online database. The word philosophy was also searched on the Merriam- Webster Dictionary website. There was an abundance information throughout my research on

Watson’s definition on health is not just simple absence of disease, she state health as a subjective experience. It corresponds to the persons harmony, or balance within the mind, body, spirit related to the degree of congruence between the self as perceived. Watson theory also applied in the definition of health by World Health Organization as

Since its establishment as a profession more than a century ago, Nursing has been a source for numerous debates related to its course, methods and development of nursing knowledge. Many nursing definitions and theories have evolved over time. Furthermore it is in a constant process of being redefined.

Watson’s theory of caring is related to the nurse recognizing the patient and his needs as the priority, with regards to his body mind and spirit. Regardless of the setting, hospital, clinic, or community, care should be rendered to the patient with knowledge and skill while creating an interactive relationship that allows challenge and growth for both parties. It is not just the nurse completing tasks or treatments as ordered by the physician.

The profession of nursing has matured from the time of Florence Nightingale. Nursing has gone from just treating dying soldiers on the battlefield to helping guide people through their entire lives from birth to death. The maturation of nursing has led to changes in nursing philosophy and allowed for practitioners of Nursing to meld these philosophies together to form their own philosophy. In this paper I will explain my philosophy of nursing and compare it to Virginia Henderson 's definition of nursing along with discussing some of the changes to Nurse philosophy I will also discuss some of the difficulties to being a patient advocate.

Nursing theory is relatively new and as such, it continues to evolve as new knowledge is gained. There are numerous theories of nursing, each of which took years to develop and most of which continue to evolve and adapt. There are commonalities between and among the existing theories although each may focus more heavily on different aspects of responsibilities. It has to do with the philosophical foundations for each theory.

The Human Caring Theory is written logically as it identifies the ten carative factors and four concepts of the caring model. However, her concepts have been described as complex because of their